I hadn’t thought of the movie as a metaphor for the Irish Civil War, but it makes sense. (And given that occasionally, the characters hear explosions or gunfire from the mainland.)
Watching an old season of Taskmaster, I kinda feel in love with a British actress named Sally Phillips. So I looked up her filmography, and watched an Australian film she made this year, called How To Please A Woman.
Phillips plays Gina, a working mother, in a sexless marriage, whose friends buy her a male stripper for her fiftieth birthday. She’s rather put off, and when he tells her he’ll do anything she asks, she has him clean her house. Which gives her an idea for a business, when she’s laid off later that day; she hooks up with a moving company that’s facing bankruptcy - the day job of the stripper who cleaned her house - and turns them into a housecleaning-slash-male-prostitution service, one that guarantees its clients a clean house, and at least one orgasm. During the course of the movie her husband leaves her and she winds up with the middle-aged, thoroughly decent head of the moving company.
It’s cute, and hits all the expected beats of a quirky comedy. But it’s interesting in its focus on the sexuality of middle-aged women; during one scene, Phillips says her business is for all those women who feel sexually invisible. And the director has some fun playing with tropes. The group of friends who first buy Phillips the stripper regularly swim in the ocean together, so there are a few scenes set in the locker room as they’re showering and changing. One would expect the director then to add nude and half-dressed women in the background, for fanservice. And indeed, director Renée Webster does just that. But in keeping with the film’s valorization of the sexuality of middle-aged women, the background features older women wandering about in the nude. Phillips herself has a topless scene that felt gratuitous until I realized that Webster was again subverting tropes about male gaze; had the character been a woman in her twenties, the audience would have expected to see her body. By showing her breasts, Phillips and Webster were underlining that a fifty year-old woman is as sexual a being as a twenty-two year-old.
One line in particular hit surprisingly hard; Gina is instructing her male employees that each assignment requires at least one orgasm. One of the men asks if his orgasm counts toward that quota, to which Gina replies, “Your orgasm is irrelevant.”
Not a great film, but a good one, and Phillips is very likable in the role. And the young actor who plays Tom, the stripper, made me check IMDB to see if Chris and Liam Hemsworth had a younger brother.
I have a bunch of new movies I want to watch, but last night I just felt like re-watching My Uncle Vinny from 1992. It had been many years since I’d seen it and I just had this vague memory that it was lots of fun. As indeed it was. One of the funniest movies I’ve seen. There were parts where I was laughing so hard I nearly hurt myself. 
Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei are excellent as archetypal New Yorkers. Pesci plays a novice lawyer defending a criminal case in Alabama despite having no experience, and also trying (but constantly failing) to get any sleep.
Just being nitpicky, it is My Cousin Vinny. I thought for a moment it was another movie, but then after you described it I realized which one it was. I agree it is a fun movie, and it is apparently very well liked by lawyers:
//i\\
Yes, thank you, of course it’s My Cousin Vinny!
In my defense, I posted that nearly six hours after I saw it, so I could hardly be expected to remember the title! 
I think my favorite little legal moment is when Vinny says, “Man, I wish I knew what your case was,” to the prosecutor. Prosecutor says, “I’ll send everything over by the morning.”
It’s unrealistic that Vinny would not understand “discovery” or whatever it is called, but I had no idea as a kid.
Black Adam on HBO Max. Another DC offering that forgets that comics should be fun. The script even drains all the fun out of an actor like Dwayne Johnson whose picture should be next to the word “fun” in the dictionary. It’s particularly irksome because the title is peripheral to the SHAZAM franchise; the rare exception to DC’s “no fun” rule.
Last night’s film on the Christmas roto was Baryshnikov’s Nutcracker with Gelsey Kirkland.
One of the most disappointingly boring movies of the year. I’m sure The Rock realized it when he saw the final cut. So unfun.
I saw Black Adam yesterday on HBO Max and am glad that I didn’t bother to see it in the theaters. It was OK, but nothing more than that.
Time for a sequel, maybe?
The son of Ralph Macchio’s character gets into legal trouble and calls on his dad’s cousin for help. (OK, technically not his Uncle, but close enough.)
My favorite version. She was nuts, but such a gorgeous dancer.
A Dandy in Aspic a spy movie from 1968, so very early in the genre. With Laurence Harvey, an impossibly young Tom Courtenay, and Mia Farrow with a droolworthy Pierre Cardin wardrobe. Nice tight plot, lots of tension and great dialog. I especially liked the clever opening credits that were echoed in the closing. Atmospheric shots of Berlin…so early there were swathes of “the” Wall with no graffiti. Recommend.
Oh, and I recently watched both My Cousin Vinny and The Grand Budapest Hotel. Love them both. And I was near tears twice during Budapest so I disagree that it’s stylized and cold. Stylized, yes, but lots of heart and a big valentine to Stefan Zweig.
Definitely agreed.
My favorite line from My Cousin Vinny: when one of the young men observes that all of the junk food his buddy just bought is going to make him fart, the other guy shrugs and says, “So what? We’re in a convertible!”
One of the funniest scenes from My Cousin Vinny might possibly be judged politically incorrect in today’s political climate, but hell, I thought it was hilarious. Anyone who hasn’t seen the movie yet, please do not watch before watching the full movie – it’s much funnier in context. 
ETA: Per the Legal Eagle clip, it’s a huge mistake to approach too close to the jury – you’re supposed to give them space. Keep that in mind when watching this!
Saw The Long Kiss Goodnight with Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson, and I have to say it was a lot of fun. It was stupid and trashy and over the top like every good 90s action movie should be, and I laughed a lot.
Watched Monsters Inc with my two year old son. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him sit through an entire film. He was mesmerized by all the doors opening and closing. That is truly a special film. It’s funny, it’s well written, and it’s moving. The story hit us differently now that we are parents. Both me and Sr. Weasel cried at the end.
RRR
Saw it again with my wife and this time we watched the English dub. Yes, it’s an incredible movie and it holds up on a second viewing. But, yes, it is overlong by about 40 minutes.
Still, I think it will likely be my #1 movie of 2022. I haven’t seen anything to compete with the sheer boldness, craziness, and insanity of RRR. Just a great movie.
Emily the Criminal. Very well-acted. Above average in story, I guess. I felt like it was missing something.
Not even Everything Everywhere All At Once?
Another late 60s one – Marlowe with James Garner. 1969. Probably most remembered for Bruce Lee jumping off a tall building (at least I’ve seen that scene several times). Although it was specifically based on a Raymond Chandler book (The Little Sister), it played more like a longer Rockford Files episode. Of course, James Garner is charming as usual. He has an office in the Bradbury Building, and co-stars were Gayle Hunnicut and Rita Moreno. Moreno has a strip tease scene at the end that highlights her awesome flexibility. Watchable and keeps your interest, but not must-see. Interestingly the William Daniels character uses the word ‘sitcom’ and has to explain to Marlowe that it means situation comedy. So, 1969 is when it first started being used?
Here’s a website that seems to say that the term “situation comedy” existed in print by 1952 and the term “sitcom” existed in print by 1964:
sitcom | Etymology, origin and meaning of sitcom by etymonline.
It seems to say that “sitcom” was already around by 1959.